The Ropes High School baseball team held their annual summer youth camp this past Tuesday through Thursday to help future Eagles sharpen their baseball skills.
Ropes baseball head coach, Nathan Flores, says the main thing he wants to emphasize during these camps is being good teammates with each other.
“We get a little selfish in baseball, I've seen that quite a bit. If we can address that with these younger kids and it grows on them as they get older, I think that's gonna make them better ball players later,” said Flores.
Flores said that the most important thing he can teach the young athletes is playing as a team, communicating, and then the fundamentals of baseball.
“The big thing for me is in the program that I have is to teach them to communicate and be good teammates with each other. I think that sometimes, regardless of skill level, if they play together and play as a team that is what's going to make them better ball players in the long run,” said Flores.
The high school athletes helped coach the upcoming players to have better catching techniques, batting, base running, and throwing mechanics as well.
Flores said having the older players there is very helpful for mentoring the younger ones.
“I think that they look up to these guys. You know a lot of these kids come to a lot of the varsity games, so they already know who these guys are a little bit and I think they idolize them a little bit,” Flores said.
During the first two days of camp, players hit in the batting cages, did agility work, practiced fielding, worked on basic skills, and ended with a scrimmage.
The camp was split up between players between fourth and sixth grade from 10:00 a.m. to noon and grades seventh through ninth were held from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
The camp ended Thursday with a game between the players to show off their new skills.
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